International Conference “Giorgio Agamben. The Urgency of Thought”

International Conference

“Giorgio Agamben. The Urgency of Thought”

19-21 October 2022

Universidad de Granada

Keynote speakers:

●      Giorgio Agamben

●      Andrea Cavalletti

●      Pedro G. Romero

●      Germán Labrador

CALL FOR PAPERS

Giorgio Agamben is one of the most influential figures of contemporary critical thought. Widely known for his book series on the obscure sacrificial figure of homo sacer, his works also examine a broad range of problems (biopolitics, aesthetics, literature, postsecularism) from equally varied vantage points (philosophy, law, politics, literary theory) while always retaining a focus on ontology.

The International Conference “Giorgio Agamben. The Urgency of Thought” proposes to analyze the different aspects of Agamben’s oeuvre, from its dialogical relationship with preceding philosophical, aesthetic, and literary work (Martin Heidegger, Walter Benjamin, Simone Weil, Guy Debord, Aby Warburg, Gilles Deleuze or Michel Foucault), to its main philological, philosophical, and methodological contributions. Special attention will be paid to new pathways in the praxis inspired by Agamben’s work (Tiqqun). In so doing, the conference shall examine Agamben’s main conceptual contributions to philosophy and political thought, both in the critique of Western apparatuses of power, and in his conceptual proposals (form-of-life, destituent power, the community of whatever singularities). In addition, the conference seeks to explore Agamben’s notions of the politics of literature from his early work to his latest contributions, in which aesthetic and literary thought are imbricated with his philosophical and political concepts. The question of the role of the religious in culture and society will also be analyzed both from this interdisciplinary perspective and from the context of the global escalation of politico-religious conflict and the necessity of reviewing concepts which entail the opening and reappraisal of allegedly secular modern thought. Giorgio Agamben has paid special attention to the tension between religion and (post)secular society, particularly in relation to the question of temporality, capitalism, and art.

Finally, Agamben’s thought has given rise to different criticisms and polemics, from persistent questionings of the usage and extension of some of his concepts and diagnoses to more recent controversies in the wake of his opinions vis-à-vis the biopolitical implications of the current health situation. The conference shall offer an opportunity to measure and assess the position of the latest polemics within the whole of Agamben’s work.

Scholars from all areas of philosophy, literature, political science and religious studies are invited to submit presentation proposals. These may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

1) The politics of literature.

2) Biopolitics.

3) Event philosophy.

4) Law and philosophy

5) New political subjectivities

6) Politics and ontology

7) Literature and art

8) Reimagining autonomy

9) Literature, (post)secularism and the critique of modernity

10) New temporalities, anachronism and futurization

Conference languages

Please email abstracts (300 words) for 15-20-minute presentations by 20th September 2022to [email protected].

Registration fee: €100

Registration fee (non-presenting attendees): €50

The International Conference “Giorgio Agamben. The Urgency of Thought” is jointly organized by the research projects “Procesos de subjetivación: biopolítica y política de la literatura. La herencia del primer Foucault” (PID2019-107240GB-I00) and “Políticas de la literatura en la era postsecular” (A-HUM-732-U).